Valerie Adams in line for global award

VALERIE ADAMS has been nominated as one of three finalists for the international athletics federation’s Woman Athlete of the Year award.

Adams won her second Olympic shot put gold medal in controversial circumstances in London, and is also three-times world champion.

She is up against British heptathlon gold medal winner Jessica Ennis and U.S sprinter Allyson Felix.

The trio were voted for during a three-week poll, with 2400 officials, athletes and journalists voting.

Adams, Ennis and Felix received the most votes, with the winners announced in Barcelona on November 24.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, American hurdler Aries Merritt and Kenyan 800m runner David Rudisha are the three men’s finalists.

Adams finished the competition in London behind Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus, who was later stripped of her gold medal for doping.